Incumbent agencies Connect Worldwide in Canada and Wiechmann Tourism Service in Germany have both been retained for PR and marketing work.

North Carolina’s state Department of Commerce director of marketing for tourism, Wit Tuttell, told PRWeek US: ‘We appreciate the creative and enthusiastic work that Hills Balfour has done for us, but decided that Travel and Tourism Marketing was a better fit to our current needs and resources.’

Hills Balfour MD Jonathan Sloan said: ‘The destination is now well-positioned in the UK market, but due to ongoing budget cuts in international marketing expenditure, they have had to rethink their international strategy and the resources available to them.’

TTM will promote the state to a UK audience via coverage in the travel media as well as through digital, social media and trade shows, in a combined contract worth $1.2m (£740,000) across all three countries.

The specialist travel agency works with a number of US tourism bodies, including the tourism offices of Louisiana and Massachusetts.